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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26235868">cherries are far sweeter than blood— but not as sweet as your love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dal_segno/pseuds/dal_segno'>dal_segno</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NU'EST</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Angst, Betrayal, Blood, Character Death, Death, M/M, Major Character Injury, Open Ending, Please don't skip any of the tags, References to Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore, Vague Ending</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:54:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,148</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26235868</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dal_segno/pseuds/dal_segno</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron is so fucking beautiful and Minhyun wants to look at him forever. But he’s dying, isn’t he? He won’t be able to snatch glances at him like a teenager so madly in love anymore. He won’t be able to fall into the abyss that was Aaron. He-</p><p>He won’t be able to kiss those cherry stained lips if he dies like this.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hwang Minhyun/Aaron Kwak | Aron</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. cherry stained lips</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Here's a short MinRon fic I did as practice &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Minhyun hates the iron taste of blood. In fact, he hates anything that doesn’t taste like cherries. But he’s not exactly in a position where he can get what he wants. A golden dagger remains lodged in his chest, rendering him unable to do anything. So he closes his eyes and thinks back to when cherries and stolen kisses were his whole world.</p><p>-</p><p>King Minhyun remembers the exact moment he fell in love with a man with cherries colouring his lips. His name was Aaron and oh did Minhyun love saying his name. The way it rolled off his tongue seemed like second nature to him. Like he was meant to say Aaron’s name over and over until the day he died.</p><p>(Perhaps that day had come too soon.)</p><p>He remembers stealing glances at Aaron all the time. On his coronation, Aaron stood next to him all proper like the royal advisor he was. Yet Minhyun’s eyes were set on the strands of his love’s red hair the whole time he was to say an oath in front of his people. Aaron teased him for it once it was all over. To hear Aaron's laugh again, Minhyun was willing to make a fool out of himself in front of the kingdom a hundred times over. </p><p>(By falling for him, he's already a fool.)</p><p>Minhyun remembers when he tore himself apart trying to understand why Aaron felt so right but so, so <em>wrong</em>. He goes back to the time he wanted to jump out of his own skin when he realised Aaron was lying down in nothing on his bed. The night before clouded his thoughts and made him do things to his love. It was all so <em>wrong</em>. Though he promised himself to never go beyond what they were, he'd broken that promise overnight. No one else was to blame except for himself.</p><p>But the sight of Aaron sleeping as the sun shone on his pale skin made Minhyun hitch his breath and think, <em>maybe this isn’t so wrong after all.</em></p><p>(It was, in the end.)</p><p>-</p><p>Minhyun gasps when the dagger is taken out only for it to be thrusted back into his chest. This time it's right next to his heart. Drops of blood fly everywhere when he coughs.</p><p><em>Why am I not dead yet?</em> He asks himself.</p><p>Tears well up in his eyes. His heart races to keep him alive, however much in vain. The broken king wants nothing more than to <em>die</em>. Minhyun wants to give up right now.</p><p>But he doesn’t. Not when Aaron’s right in front of him twisting the dagger deeper into Minhyun’s chest. It hurts so much; too much for Minhyun to take. Despite that, he still has the will to stay alive, even for a little while longer. If he could look at Aaron for a bit more, he thinks he could take it.</p><p>You know, Minhyun used to say he’d die for Aaron. That he’d sacrifice anything for Aaron, the one he loved. And he finds it funny how he’s dying (it never really occurred to him that he was actually <em>dying</em>) at the hands of the man he fell in love with all that time ago. All but a guttural whine escapes Minhyun's dry throat. Blood keeps flowing from his chest like water in a broken cup.</p><p>Taking a proper look at Aaron made Minhyun realise just how beautiful he was in his eyes. Blazing red hair slicked back, showing his forehead. Thick eyebrows knitting together in concentration (or was it something else?). Perfect skin reflecting off the moonlight cascading down on them. Dark eyes so sinister Minhyun wanted to know how deep he could dive into them.</p><p>Aaron is so fucking <em>beautiful</em> and Minhyun wants to look at him forever. But he’s dying, isn’t he? He won’t be able to snatch glances at him like a teenager so madly in love anymore. He won’t be able to fall into the abyss that was Aaron. He-</p><p>He won’t be able to kiss those cherry stained lips if he dies like this.</p><p>So Minhyun talks. Whispers, actually, since it's so hard to talk and he'd much rather die right now, but he talks. The words flow like the tears running down his pathetic face. He doesn’t know if Aaron will listen. Still, he talks.</p><p>“You are so beautiful,” he whispers. Aaron’s expression hardens, making him even more beautiful to Minhyun. Gasping for air, the king continues.</p><p>He should be mad, afraid, betrayed, anything. Minhyun doesn’t feel any of that; he only feels a little lonely. The king was never the type of person to feel such things nor was he the type to hide what he felt. Really, it's just how he is.</p><p>“I love you so much,” the dying king finally confesses with much desperation and pain coating his words. Minhyun’s dim eyes search his lover’s face. “Cherries suit you perfectly, Aaron.”</p><p>Aaron’s face is unreadable to Minhyun, as if trying to shield what he felt behind a brick wall. No matter, Minhyun thinks he knows how his advisor feels anyway: nothing.</p><p>(Or so he thought.)</p><p>“Can I taste you once more, my cherry?”</p><p>Aaron merely nods before he sets his lips one more time on Minhyun’s. The king smiles against the other’s trembling lips. They stay like that for a bit. Unmoving and at peace.</p><p>Seconds pass and Minhyun succumbs to the exhaustion. He lets himself rest after a long day. Should he ever stay up all night working, Aaron would annoy him until he agreed to rest. And so he rests at last with his lips- though not stained with cherries like Aaron’s- smiling up at him.</p><p>The king is dead.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. bloodstained crowns</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aaron grows cherries for himself. They stain his lips from morning until eve. In a way, they remind him of the life he once had in Olympus. There, all the gods had their lips coloured with blood as a testament to their infinite power. All except Aaron.</p><p>So cherries stain Aaron’s lips instead. Far sweeter than blood and much brighter than it too. Sure, human blood was abundant but was it worth killing a mere mortal for his own benefit? Aaron’s answer every time was a firm no. All the other gods sneered at him for being weak to kill. For being foolish.</p><p>Being called foolish for such a thing makes Aaron laugh even now. He knows exactly what makes him foolish.</p><p>And that was falling in love with a king he was destined to kill (ironic, yes) since the beginning of time.</p><p>-</p><p>The king is dead.</p><p>King Minhyun is <em>dead</em>. It doesn’t sit right with Aaron.</p><p>Even while dead does Minhyun look beautiful; eyes frozen in time yet filled to the brim with moonlight and a sweet smile graced his unmoving lips. Aaron doesn’t expect any less from the mortal who stole his heart and swayed him away from what he was destined to do.</p><p>The god wants to cry.</p><p>But he doesn’t. All he does is yank the dagger out of Minhyun’s still chest and throw it as far as he can behind him. The dagger flies with droplets of crimson blood down the marble stairs. Some of the blood splatters on his face, which he doesn’t pay much heed to.</p><p>If he wanted to, he could transform all that blood on Minhyun into rubies or roses or cherries. So that he wouldn’t have to see what he’s done to him. Aaron could do it if he wanted to convince himself that he didn’t kill Minhyun, that the man was simply asleep and that Aaron had just stumbled upon him in the middle of a nap. He could do whatever he wanted because he was a god with the power to change reality.</p><p>Then why didn’t he change his own destiny? Go against the prophecy? Stay by Minhyun’s side forever?</p><p>Aaron doesn’t know. What he <em>does</em> know is that he’s a coward.</p><p>He kneels down on the bloodied steps next to Minhyun. Noticing his crooked head, Aaron tilts Minhyun’s head ever so slightly so he could look at him. He frowns at the mess he’s made out of Minhyun’s once pristine, blond hair: it’s scarlet where Aaron held it and no longer parted in the center. A dent is present on the top of his head from where his crown used to be. Aaron tears his eyes away from the corpse to find it next to the throne at the top of the staircase.</p><p>It’s not that far so he makes his way to it, but not before he places a gentle kiss on Minhyun’s freezing hands. When he holds the crown, he wonders how Minhyun was ever able to carry it on his head all the time. It weighs heavy in his bloodstained hands as he examines the jewels encrusted in it.</p><p>However stunning it looks, it looks so dull and boring without Minhyun wearing it. </p><p>Aaron walks back to the king to put the crown back where it belongs. It leaves a ring of red on Minhyun’s hair when he sets it down. He lets out a soft gasp when he sees Minhyun sprawled out on the steps as his blood spreads all around him.</p><p>He’s really gone.</p><p>-</p><p>The god thinks of the times when prince Minhyun would grab his hand and run to wherever he wanted to. Sometimes they’d end up at the castle gardens where flowers of all kinds brought a little more colour into their life. Other times they'd end up in the cherry farm near the castle.</p><p>Wherever Minhyun would take him, Aaron would gladly follow. Hell, if Minhyun told him to go with him to the depths of the Underworld, Aaron would go with him. Although, Hades might not appreciate it. But, Aaron would do anything for Minhyun.</p><p>(But then why did he kill him?)</p><p>Aaron’s mind jumps from memory to memory. The time Minhyun would show him some dumb trick when he was supposed to write a letter to their neighbouring kingdom. Once when he would serenade Aaron to sleep after a long day of hearing the people’s complaints. When Minhyun’s eyes became crescents upon seeing Aaron do something extraordinarily stupid.</p><p>(It never did take much to make Minhyun laugh.)</p><p>The sound of Minhyun’s laugh rings in Aaron’s ears, drowning out anything else. It’s so etched into his mind that Aaron could probably copy it with perfect precision. Not long after, Minhyun’s voice- sweet as ambrosia- fills his head as he yearns to hear him once more. He’d do anything, <em>anything</em>, to hear Minhyun sing again. To hear Minhyun annoy the everloving fuck out of him. To hear Minhyun shout his love for him when there’s no one around.</p><p>(Anything but raising him from the dead, that is.)</p><p>-</p><p>Aaron hooks his arms underneath Minhyun’s body to carry the dead king. In the process, the golden crown falls down the stairs. Leaving it there, Aaron continues to walk up to lay Minhyun to rest where he belonged: his throne. Minhyun’s blood seeps into the velvet seat of the throne as he sits. </p><p>The god- no, <em>Aaron</em> (he can’t ever see himself like that anymore) leans close to Minhyun’s face. He begs, foolishly begs, for Minhyun to crack open an eye and yawn like he’d just woken up in the morning. Of course nothing happens: Minhyun is dead. All because of Aaron and that stupid prophecy.</p><p>If Aaron could kill himself right now, he would. But gods can’t die, at least in the way mortals do. They can fade from existence but even then, they won’t die.</p><p>So, he can’t die with Minhyun. And he already accepted it long ago.</p><p>He brings a bloody hand to his cheeks to wipe away the tears. Standing in front of the king, Aaron keeps crying until his eyes dry out and his lungs scream for air. Nothing he can do now can bring Minhyun back, and he knows it. They both know it; no one needs to say what would happen if Aaron dared to bring him back.</p><p>“Sleep well, my king,” Aaron whispers with the utmost regret in his words. He can barely hear it above the beating of his heart but he knows Minhyun can hear him. He always does.</p><p>Aaron walks down the stairs again, careful to not slip on Minhyun’s blood still spread out on the steps, but not before he casts a spell. A garland of cherries as red as rubies appears on Minhyun’s head with the flick of Aaron’s hand. The real crown sits at the beginning of the steps but Aaron kicks it to the side without a care.</p><p>Cherry stained lips smile up at Minhyun.</p><p>“Oh how unpleased Hades will be when he learns I simply will not give up on you, my king,” Aaron jokes bitterly.</p><p>“Will you wait for me?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Why are Minron fics so angsty?</p><p>(Twitter: @nocturnelovebot)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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